Friends Forever
by Lady Maria
Summary: Third in my Hunter series. She's all grown up now and back in the WWE. This, of course, means she has to face the ex-boyfriend she never really forgot. Can she tell him her secrets this time around?


**Thunderbugs - Friends Forever**

_A/N: Alright, so this is either story two or three in my Hunters series. It could be two because part of it takes place before two, but other parts take place after two. I'm billing it as three. _

_I don't own Friends Forever, the Thunderbugs do. Joss owns BtVS, Vince owns WWE.  I also own the Hunter Universe, as many of the things that happened in canon happened entirely differently here, so it's pretty much completely AU._

_Please don't be surprised by how off the wall this fic is. I'm sick and my doctor proscribed some really potent cough syrup with codeine yesterday, and so at least part of this will be written under that influence. It's strong enough to make the world spin. I'm campaigning to throw it away, but my parents have other ideas. *sulks*_

_Anyways, I'm just warning you.  Review please_**!**

**You're not alone **

"Ken, wait up."

Kendra locked eyes with her Slayer sister.  "Buffy, it hurts so badly.  I really thought he was good, that he was reformed."

"I thought he was too." She slipped an arm around the other girl. "But remember, none of us knew about the curse.  If we had, we would have tried to change it."

"Buffy, he's killing your friends. He's killing mine," her voice broke on a sob. "If we can't muster up the strength to kill him, he'll figure out a way to resurrect Darla and maybe that one guy."

"'That one guy'?" the American repeated with a raised eyebrow. "We really have been rubbing off on you."

"What I mean is he'll resurrect anyone who ever constituted the Scourge.  And if the Scourge is back, we'll all die."

"So we can either kill him," Buffy told her, "or we can resoul him. Which do you want to do?"

"I love Angel," Kendra told her sister, "and I don't think I can kill Angelus." 

"So we're going with plan B, resouling." 

"Thank you," the Jamaican girl sighed.

"We're family, Ken.  And I love you and don't want to see you suffer. Killing Angelus would make you suffer."

**Remember when we used to talk all night? **

**We didn't get much sleep **

"Mama," she sobbed into her mother's shoulder, "why did Drusilla kill her?"

"Dru killed because, in her eyes, Kendra was a rival for her father's affections." Joyce stared down at her daughter.  "It's unfair, I know.  Just remember that as long as you remember her, Kendra will never die."

Dawn, twelve year old Dawnie, was the one to ask. "Buffy, do you want to talk about her? Maybe it'll help."

Settling down on the couch opposite her mother and sister, Buffy started her tale. "She loved him so much, you know?  Her love for a vampire was as doomed as my love for Christian but she loved him anyway.  But she didn't want Watcher Z to know, so I pretended to be the one in love with Angel." She sighed. "Talk about Romeo and Juliet."

"And Willow was the one who tried the resouling spell?" Joyce asked carefully.

"Yeah, but what I didn't know today was that she was going to attempt it again.  I had to send my sister's lover to hell and her killer got away.  How is it that that happened?  Did the fates conspire against us or something?"

Dawn curled up next her older sister, body wracked with sobs. "Would you be as put out if I was the one who had died?"

"Of course, baby sister." Pulling her in tighter and gesturing to their mother to join them, she repeated, "Of course."

Later, when Dawn had gone to bed, Joyce gazed into her daughter's broken soul. "Both of you need to get the hell out of here, honey."

"And what do suggest, running off to L.A. for the summer?" Buffy asked with acid sharpness in her tone. 

"No, but we can use that to fool the 'Scooby Gang'. I thought the two of you wouldn't mind spending the summer on the road."

"With the Uncles?" Dawn asked from the stairs.  "Count me in.  But the excuse, 'She's gone to visit her father,' would work out a lot better for me."

"I have the world's two smartest daughters," Joyce grinned.

**Talking love and planning out our lives **

"Long time since we saw each other," Stephanie grinned, hugging the little Slayer as hard as she could. 

"I know.  You said he took three months off?"

Dawn snickered. "You two don't even truly say hello before you jump onto the subject of 'him'."

Both older girls chuckled at how right the younger one was.  Steph was the one to speak next. "He's gone to visit relatives in Canada.  You won't see him even once."

And for just a moment, Buffy wondered why she felt such a rush of disappointment.

**And who we're going to be **

"So, Slay Sis," Buffy grinned, "what's the strangest thing you've ever done on a patrol?"

"Well, there was this one time. I hear a commotion outside, and go to investigate, right? Moreover, there's three vamps snacking on what's gotta be half the Baptists in South Boston. I slay 'em, the preacher dude starts hugging me like there's no tomorrow, and then the cops show up and arrest us both.  I didn't realize I was naked," Faith finished her tale, a little embarrassed but not showing it. "What about you?" 

"It was the summer after I was Called, and I was out partying with my best friend—"

"You and Willow out partying? Why does that scare the hell out of me?" Faith interrupted.

"I didn't say that it was Willow and me, because Willow partying gives me the heebie jeebies.  Like I was saying, Steph and I were out with her brother and his best friend, Jeff and his brother, Matt. We were all a little high, a little wasted. Out of nowhere came these bad assed Mohra demons and they decided that Steph was exactly what they were looking for in a mate. When the dust cleared, all seven of them were gone and Steph was standing in the middle of Miami, naked as the day she was born.  We still rib her about it, and it's been over two years now."

"Yours tops mine.  One day, I've got to meet this Steph girl."

**Things were so much different then **

The Slayer gave a start at the appearance of the girl everyone else thought she was completely against. She looked around the cemetery situated at the edge of town before speaking. "Faith, I thought I told you to leave town as soon as possible."

The nearly sixteen-year-old Slayer sighed deeply. "B, you and your mom gave me a chance, but I killed a man. Does this mean nothing to you people?!"

Buffy laughed, allowing her eyes to harden for a moment. "Here's the sitch, lil' sis.  Mom's killed before and so have I. Hunters don't have the same rules Slayers do. If a mortal, or at least a normal human who's not in the know about us, interferes with a slaughter or an individual hunt, we are supposed to kill them. If we don't kill them, we must at least wipe their memories. They are a threat to our secrets otherwise.  You killing him don't really bother me. I probably would have killed him anyway if he'd lived." Staring at her for a moment, she added, "I would have thought you would have at least known our ways. That's why we felt compelled to help, really."

"What are Hunters?" Faith asked with a confused expression, "And why did you feel compelled?"

Sucking in a deep breath, Buffy simply groaned. "Oh, man. I didn't even think that you didn't know. Jeez, you'd think someone in your family would have known and told you. Well, Morning View Cemetery is simply not the proper place for this discussion.  But I can't take you home; Willow's over and Giles has given us all instructions to tranq you on sight."

"So I have to lay low until she's gone."  

"No, I just need to get you to safety." The seventeen year old looked to be in deep thought for a moment. "I'll call Mom from the bus depot, and tell her to meet us in L.A.  From there, all of us can catch a flight to Dallas.  We can arrange for either Mark or Glenn to meet us there.  Maybe Steph or another of the Mai Clan. I don't know. Whoever we ask to meet us though will have to understand that they'll become your teacher."

"Uh, teacher?" she managed to gasp out. "Look, what the hell are you blathering about?"

Taking pity on the younger girl, Buffy started to guide her to the station. "We'll explain when we get there. For now, just know that we're helping you out of this jam."

**And life has changed so much, my friend **

The twenty-year-old McMahon looked at first her best friend and her best's mother and then back at the young brunette. "I can train her, but I've also got to finish college. Shane could train her, but he'd probably completely fuck her up.  I mean, he used to try and decapitate the dog.  I really don't think he could handle a student."

Faith still looked confused. "First, why do I need training? I'm just the Slayer. And secondly, this Shane person sounds like he was a menace as a toddler."

Buffy and Steph burst into simultaneous laughter. Buffy was the first to speak. "He started trying to decapitate the family dog when he was five. At twenty-five, he is still trying to decapitate the family dog. Different dog, same old tricks."

"My brother, the psycho," Steph groaned. "And as for need for training, well…You have the potential to be a Hunter. The magic has been inactive for your entire life, which is rare, but it's there."

"And what the hell is a Hunter?" Faith shouted. "I keep asking, but no one gets the picture!"

"A Hunter, child," Joyce spoke up from the driver's seat of the Jeep, "is short for natural born demon Hunter. Each Hunter has a well of magic and other capabilities. It's our guess that you're probably the result of a pure blooded Hunter's descendants marrying nothing but normal people for somewhere around four to seven generations.  Another guess is that when you were activated as the Slayer, that latent potential to be a Hunter was activated along with it.  Your watcher taught you how to be a Slayer. Now it falls to us to teach you to be a Hunter."

"And mesh the two different kinds of abilities so that the Council isn't suspicious," Buffy added. "After all, imagine what they would do with a Hunter-Slayer."

"That thought terrifies me," Faith shuddered.

"It should," her Slayer sister told her. "It really should."

"But enough on that subject," Steph broke in. "Where are our manners? I'm Stephanie McMahon, and you're Faith Pryce, correct?"

"Five-by-five…holy shit!  You're the girl in the story Buffy told!"

Steph groaned. "Please tell me it's not the Miami story?"

"It's a wonderful reason for me never to drink in that city again," Buffy shrugged.

"Again?" her mother asked crisply.

"Ummm, teenage identity crisis?" her daughter offered.

****

They stayed for the next five days. Both Summers women would have liked to have stayed longer, but thirteen year old Dawn kept calling to ask when they'd get back because otherwise she would find a reason to kill Giles.  No matter how annoying he was, they couldn't just let her kill him.

While Buffy slept on the way back to LAX, Joyce kept watch over her eldest. She couldn't help but wonder why it was that young girls stayed up so late whenever they gathered in groups of two or more.  

Laughing to herself, she remembered how much destruction the three young women had wreaked on the Dallas demon population. 

The demons had never known what hit them.

**But you and I will always believe **

**'Cos we'll be **

**You'll see **

**We'll be **

Staring out the college's library window, Stephanie jumped a mile when she felt someone poke her. The young woman was finally twenty-one, although she hadn't had a hangover since her twentieth birthday.  Turning to look, she found herself grinning. "Hey Fay."

"Hey, Steph.  B called." In the year that she'd been living and training with Stephanie, the only thing that had really changed was how she dressed. Therefore, she was still as blunt as ever.

"And what did she say?"

"They survived graduation, and it probably would have been even worse if she hadn't called in so many of the Clans.  They still ended up blowing the school up to mask the slaughter. They even had to hide it from the Council and the Scoobies." 

"She's so violent," Steph shuddered, "and yet, I'm not repulsed. Wait, she didn't tell the people she fighting with?"

"First off, if you were, you would be repulsed by yourself," Faith asserted dryly.

"I deeply resent that."

"Hey, you know what they say.  No matter how much life changes, some things always stay the same. And that extends to number two as well."

"I hate you," Steph groaned.

"Like that," Faith finished.

**We'll be friends forever **

Looking around another Dallas hotel room, two years after that first time and a year after graduation, Buffy smiled sadly. "So how's Fay these days?"  Any topic was good as long as they got off the topic of Mark.

"She's good," Steph nodded. "I think she's down in Brazil at the moment visiting Alejandro."

"Alejandro?" the Slayer asked, leaning across her bed so that she facing her best friend. "Do tell more."

"Alejandro's mother is Brazilian and a medicine woman in her tribe. However, his father is a Hunter. To be more specific, he's a member of the Callas Clan. Actually, you know him."

"I do?" Her eyebrow arched upwards.

"Yeah, I'm not positive, but I think he's your uncle."

"Wh…wh…which uncle?" Buffy stammered.

"Michael," Steph said gently. "And it's only a suspicion.  I can't be positive."

"Steph, there aren't that many Michael Calloways in the world, let alone in the Callas Clan."

"Whatever. We can deal with this at another time."

Those hazel eyes lit up with mischief as they had when they were children. "What's up with your love life anyway?"

Steph turned crimson.  "Not much."

"Bullshit. No sane person turns that red if they don't have something to hide."

"I like someone, alright?" Steph snapped.  

This was a flashback for both of them, because both could recall late night long distance calls involving all of them.  Two would be in a hotel somewhere or in the tiny apartment in Stanford that they shared, and Buffy would be in California.  They would dish all night about what was going on in their lives, and invariably, Steph wouldn't want to share about her love life.

"And it's not your Hunter mate, is it?" Buffy questioned.

"No," Steph sighed, "it's not Paul Levesque." Paul was of the Gaia Clan, and everyone approved of their match. Steph, however, had never really thought about marrying into a Clan, let alone marrying someone she didn't like. In addition, due to the unusual method in which Paul had married their best friend, Faith and Buffy could barely stand him.

"There is a God." Buffy shook out her long hair, which was as near to its natural strawberry blonde as she let it get. "So what's his name, where'd you meet him, and what's he like?"

"His name is Rob Van Dam," she stated lowly. "And he's the most wonderful man on the planet."

"Mr. Bendy?" If her eyes got much wider, they'd no longer stretch across her head.

"Will you not call him that?" Steph snickered. 

"Why shouldn't I?" That impish grin that Steph had missed for so long was finally back.

"Never mind," the older Hunter dismissed.

**We'll be **

**You'll see **

**We'll be like Thelma and Louise **

**We'll be **

**(Yeah, yeah) **

_Guy of Warwick_

(wor´ik), English legendary hero, popularized by an anonymous 14th-century rhymed romance. Guy won the earl of Warwick's daughter and saved England from the Danes by killing the giant Colbrand; he later renounced worldly vanities and ended his days as a hermit. The story probably has a historical basis. Its popularity lasted through the 17th and 18th centuries.

Buffy rubbed her eyes. She really didn't want to know why she'd just received a dictionary entry from her sister on some guy named Guy.  She was really hoping Dawn had emailed her homework instead of an actual email by mistake.  "Who names their son Guy, anyway?"

Willow looked up from where she was doing homework. For once they didn't have an apocalypse, so the nineteen year old was taking advantage of the lull. "I don't know; who names their kid Buffy?"

"And why the question to begin with?" Xander asked as he came in with doughnuts. 

"None of your business," the Slayer snarled. "I'll be in my room." What she didn't say was that she fed up with it all…and that she was leaving.

As the bedroom door slammed shut, the redhead shook her head. "Something's been bothering her ever since she came back from her vacation last month."

"Wonder what it is that's got Miss Moody moodier than usual." Xander's statement was matter-of-fact, but the words were biting.

"You want to know, Mr.-I-have-to-save-the-world-even-though-I'm-just-a-loser?" Buffy's words were colder than an Artic cold snap—hovering somewhere around 50 below—and her eyes were just as frozen. "I didn't take a vacation last week. I went to pay my last respects to the uncle who practically raised me.  And while I was there, I started realizing that I'm not the Slayer ya'll really want."

Willow gasped. "That's not true, Buff. You're our best friend."

She smirked. "Alright, I'll bite. What's my fav color then lil' Willow?"

"Red," she answered, almost positive.

"No, that's Faith's fav. My favorite is black. It doesn't show demon guts as much as other colors." Turning to her other 'friend', her eyes grew even harder. "Xander, you think I'm so moody. What do you think my family voted me at the last reunion we had, and where did I go when I ran away? Hell, why did I run away?"

The Scooby's clown scrunched up his face in concentration. "They voted you Miss Moody, you went to L.A. and worked as a waitress, and you ran away because you sent your boyfriend to Hell."

"They voted me the one who never lets her feelings out, the brick of the family.  I went to Texas and visited my uncle. You see, I didn't actually run away because my mother knew exactly where I was going and even gave me the plane ticket. Last but not least, Angel was a friend. A friend you forced me to send to Hell because you felt that Deadboy wasn't a proper boyfriend, so you didn't tell me that Willow was going to try the resouling spell. We weren't even dating; he'd lost his soul when Kendra boinked him!" 

Picking up her bags, she turned to go. Suddenly realizing something, she paused at the door. "This house will going on the market in two days. I expect both of you to be out by this time tomorrow; I will be sending my best friend's brother to make certain that everything is in order, and if he finds either of you still here or that you stole anything, he can fry your asses for all I care."

She left them gawking after her. She'd never yelled at them like that. But the Hunter didn't care; she was no longer the Chosen One they constantly badmouthed.  She had finally become her Uncle Glenn's equal and as such, she wouldn't back down and pretend she didn't hear their words.

Shane had understood when she'd called him; after all, she'd never kept the truth about her life after being Chosen from any of her Clan or any of the Clans.

**You'll see **

**(A ha) **

**We'll be friends forever **

**(Friends forever, friends forever) **

**I know that he's been hurting you **

**I've known for a while **

Steph met her at the airport.  When the blonde-haired woman finally got off the plane, the brunette cracked a smile. "Déjà vu much?"

"No shit Sherlock," Buffy bit back, a smile tempering her harsh words.  "So Vince is okay with bringing back the role of Beth Jacobs, Glenn's daughter and Mark's niece?"

"Better than that," Steph gushed, "my mother—"

"Mother?" Buffy raised an eyebrow. "So your family's finally cracked and Linda's just barely holding it together?"

"Basically," Steph nodded.  "But anyway, Mom's offered me a job as GM…which you already knew about of course, but Faith's going to be introduced as Faith Calloway, daughter of Mark, niece of Glenn, and cousin to Beth."

"Yes!" Buffy screamed, doing an impromptu happy dance in the middle of the airport baggage claim. At Steph's bemused expression, she just shrugged. "I must have hung out with them for too long. But I can't believe that I'm not the only Daughter of Destruction anymore!"

"You get excited far too easily," Stephanie groaned. "Besides, you still have to face Christian."

"Ah, damn. Spoil my fun, why don't you?"

**And now you've found love in someone new **

Faith Pryce-Summers, the adopted daughter of Joyce Summers nee Calloway, walked into that conference room, nervous as all hell.  Running her eyes over the room, she noticed that Glenn wasn't there yet and neither were her friends.

"Hey, little girl," Triple H called out, "this is only for divas and wrestlers.  Teenage hooker Barbies need not apply."

"Really?" she asked in a bright, falsely cheerful tone. "Then I'm so sorry that you must have gone to the wrong room. Ya know since you're the perfect specimen of 'rejected john' and all."

"I get more dates than you would ever want," he growled.

"And you're married?" she sniffed. "You must be so glad that your own wife can't stand you."

"She can stand me! She's just a little busy finishing up with school.  You don't understand. We're the perfect couple."

"Just because you come from Gaia and she's from Mai?" she asked innocently. "Well I'm Mai and Callas, about to marry into Callas forever.  But if there hadn't been sparks, I wouldn't be marrying Alex. And my best would never have married you if she'd been in her right mind. And my other best, she's Callas.  She's had plenty of men ask for her hand, but she's never said yes to any of them. You know why? Because she won't marry just because of bloodlines and heritage.  She only wants to marry for love."

"You don't know anything!" Hunter shouted. "Otherwise you wouldn't be naming any of the bloodlines!"

"Actually," Steph interrupted from the doorway, "Faith knows a lot.  She even knows that I'm fed up with all of this.  I obtained permission from the Elders to divorce you and continue a relationship that I'm already in."

"What?! You can't do this!"

"I can and I am." Steph's eyes hardened. "Be glad that you have my father protecting you because otherwise, you'd be fired already."

"But nothing can protect you from three members of the Clans who have grown up as close as sisters," Buffy stated coldly from behind Stephanie.

"Because women of the Clans have been standing up for each other for countless millennia," Faith finished just as coldly, "and even if it is the twenty-first century, there are some traditions that just have to continue."

"I quit, alright?" he screamed in frustration. "Is that what you wanted from me, huh? Huh?"

"You're so eloquent," the blonde Slayer snarled.  "But fortunately for you, you're right on the money. So get out, go!"

Even if he had just turned in his resignation, Paul Levesque stood there in absolute shock.

Now the brunette Slayer was pissed off. "You hurt our blood sister, Jackass.  If you had known was good for you, you would have left when things were still five-by-five. But you didn't and now you have to pay the price. Doesn't he, girls?"

"He fucked with the best friend of the Nieces of Destruction.  What do you think?" Buffy asked.

The GM smirked evilly. "I think that that tiny dick of his should be glad that it's still attached to him. Now, are you leaving yet, ex-husband of mine?"

"I'm not your ex yet!" he squealed.

"Actually, since she's been married to you for eighteen months and she filed the right type of divorce papers eighteen months ago, she's free as a bird," Faith shrugged. "Wave goodbye, loser." And with that, the youngest of the trio kicked him out the door of the conference room. Literally.

"Hi, everyone," she beamed at the wrestlers. "I'm Faith Pryce-Summers and I'm one of the two newest divas."

"Well, technically," Buffy grinned, "I'm just back to reclaim my role on the show. So you're new and I'm old coming back."

"Is she right Steph?" Faith asked in a whiny tone.

"Yes, Fay. Your sister is, as normal, right," Stephanie and Glenn intoned together.

"I hate you all!"

Cracking a grin, Glenn shook his head. "Faith, you've never seen wrestling in person. She's been a part of the show.  Honestly, which did you think would win?" 

**I can see it in your smile **

**I swear your secret's safe with me **

**Won't tell nobody what I've seen **

**What you need is perfect trust in me **

Looking at the rest of the roster, Buffy's gaze fell on one person. He was just sitting there, looking back at her.  He seemed so solemn compared to the man she'd fallen in love with years before.  "So is this when I ask if Daughters of Destruction are allowed to mingle with the common wrestlers?"

Hearing those old words, Christian allowed himself to smile. "It's been a while, but I think they are. Why, you interested in one of 'common wrestlers'?"

"I could be, but you never know. My father's really overprotective."

"Is that a fact?" Christian couldn't help but smirk at her as he moved closer. "Well, should we test our theory?"

"I guess we should." She smirked back at him, each falling back into those old roles even though it had been four years since Beth Jacobs had uttered those words, and just as long since they had done this.

As the two embraced in a display of all their old passion, Faith turned to Steph. "They were serious once?"

"Back when 'Beth' first appeared on the show. He asked her to marry him even." Stephanie sighed in a display of all that old regret. "But she was hesitant. You know what her father was like and what he did to his daughters and wife."

"She hesitated too long?" Faith guessed.

"What exactly happened anyway?" Edge asked. "No one ever explained it to me."

"B was fifteen," Stephanie started. "Her dad was bad news, worse than my father is now.  All she wanted was for a guy to care.  Your brother did, but more than that, he loved her.  She started to fall in love as well.  It scared her so badly."

"I can imagine," Faith sighed.  She'd come from a similar family background and had the same type of trust issues.

Matt Hardy, who had come just after Buffy left, was just staring.  Finally he regained his voice and asked the question about half the roster was thinking. "Who the hell is she, and how the hell does she affect him so much?"

"Her name is Buffy Summers," Steph told him, still watching her best friend, "although her character was Beth Jacobs.  Like I told Faith, those two used to seriously date back before her parents' divorce was finalized."

"You're kidding," Trish said. "The playboy settled for one woman?"

"He wasn't a playboy back then.  He was everything a girl would want in a man, but she spoiled him for everyone else.  After she left, he didn't take his heart back."

"And the Nieces of Destruction crack?" Jeff asked.

"We're their younger sister's daughters," Faith explained.

"The tribes and Elders and Clans thing?" Molly continued the line of questioning.

Faith bit her lip, trying to think of inspiration.  Then it hit her. "We're all distantly part of a Native South American tribe.  They have a lot of rules and restrictions."

Buffy had finally released her ex, and was now shaking her head ever so slightly. 'Only you Fay, only you,' she thought with amusement.

**'Cos we'll be **

**You'll see **

**We'll be **

**We'll be friends forever **

**We'll be **

**(You're not alone) **

**You'll see **

**We'll be like Thelma and Louise **

"You're right back where you two left off, aren't you?" Stephanie's voice seemed slightly accusing.

Buffy flinched at her tone. "No, we aren't. I'm trying to keep him at a distance, cuz I don't need more complications, ya know?"

Realizing how judgmental she had sounded, Steph softened. "That isn't it, honey. I meant that you are just as scared now as you were then.  You need to tell him if you ever want to have a true relationship again." 

"I don't want to have him take advantage of me. I've heard about how he is now. He's a playboy, Steph."  Still punching the bag, she took a deep breath. "Can you tell me honestly that you trust any playboy?"

"I trust him." 

"Why?"

"Because he loved you then, and he loves you now."

"The shit's getting deep in here." Angrily, Buffy stalked into the locker rooms off of the gym where they were working out. 

"I'm not shitting you, Buff."  Thinking back across the years, Steph grinned. "Can you honestly tell me that you don't love him anymore?"

"I never loved him to begin with."

"_Now the shit's getting deep," Stephanie whispered as Buffy slammed the main doors to the lobby of the building._

**We'll be **

**(Yeah, yeah) **

**You'll see **

**(A ha) **

**We'll be friends forever **

**(Friends forever) **

**We all need someone we can trust **

**A friend of our own **

"So you're Mark's daughter?" D'Von Dudley asked the brunette woman sitting across from him in the cafeteria.

"If you want to get technical, I'm his adopted niece and I'll be his niece-in-law when I get married. But we try not to talk about that."

"Why not?"

"Because Michael's branch of the family tree hasn't talked to ours since Lia and I were seven," Buffy answered.  She sat down without an invitation and started banging her head on the table.

"Hold it!" Faith exclaimed. "Who in the hell is Lia?"

"Celia Summers is our adopted cousin and Alejandro's older sister."

"And she's the same age as you? Five-by-five!"

"Not five-by-five," her sister corrected. "Lia and I were born five minutes apart. Of course, it was years before we realized that cousins were never identical."

"Identical?" D'Von queried. 

"We were born identical twins but Hank forced Mom to separate us.  Can't have too many fuckin' girls you know."

"I hate your father!" Faith vented.

"Join the club. We meet in the cemetery at midnight every All Hallow's Eve."

"Don't you have the same father?" The Dudley brother was hopelessly lost.

"Faith's adopted," was Buffy's simple reply.

**(A-ha) **

**I swear your secret's safe with me **

**(Yeah) **

**You're not alone **

"Hey, Beth," Christian smiled at his on-screen girlfriend.  For six months, they'd worked together and 'dated' each other.  In reality, they rarely talked outside of televised meetings like these.

"Long time no see, baby." Beth was supposed to be a tease, and Buffy played her part well. She ghosted her hands up his neck and down his shirt. She smirked wickedly when Christian jumped.

"Shouldn't we save that for the bedroom?" he asked, trying to ignore the fact that it wasn't Beth giving him the feelings he was battling with.  He was responding to the girl behind Beth Jacobs, Buffy Summers.

"What would be the fun it that?" she purred out. 

He wanted to point out what she was doing to him, but he really didn't want to corrupt all the young children watching the show. "Fun or not, I have a match that I have to get to."

"That bites," Beth huffed.

"Not as much as the fact that you have a match after mine does," he responded.

"See you later, baby?" Beth questioned.

"You know you will," he told her, just before pulling her in for a long kiss.

After it was done and the camera had moved on, the former lovers locked eyes before exchanging sad smiles. They could play at having their old relationship all the producers wanted, but that didn't mean they had it back.

**Together forever **

**You can depend **

**(You can depend) **

**Together we will fight **

**To the end **

**(Ah yeah) **

**'Cos we'll be **

**(Yeah, yeah) **

**You'll see **

**(Ever) **

**We'll be friends forever **

"Faith," D'Von greeted the brunette with a nod of his head, "do you wanna bet on when your sister gets together with Christian?"

She inclined her head, considering the question. "Nah. She's bound to get together with him, but I don't know when."

"Steph said the same thing," Spike Dudley mused. "I suppose if ya'll aren't betting, we shouldn't either."

"Just out of curiosity," Buffy's younger sister grinned, "when did you bet they'd get their acts together?"

"July 4th," Jeff Hardy called out.

"Valentine's Day," D'Von told her.

"I think that Christmas Eve would be an interesting day for that," Lita spoke up.

"Awesome Christmas present," Rob Van Dam asserted.

"I don't know," Shane McMahon smiled, "why you're all betting on this."

"What do you mean?" Jeff asked.

"She's not one for the traditional," he shrugged. "Now I don't know about Faith, but I do know a day that those two might actually hash it all out. As it gets closer, we'll go in fifty-fifty."

"What day?" the other Hunter whispered as they left.  She smirked when he told her. "It does sound like her."

**We'll be **

**(You're not alone) **

**You'll see **

**We'll be like Thelma and Louise **

**(No, no, no, no) **

**We'll be **

**You'll see **

**We'll be friends forever **

**(Oh) **

"Where do you go after each show?" Christian asked Buffy one day.  They were friends again, but she was trying her damnedest to not give into temptation.

"Out," she answered.

"Thank you, Diva Obvious. I mean, what are you doing when you go out?"

She thought for a moment and finally sighed. "Do you really want to know why I left all those years ago?"

"Yes. I've always wanted you to tell me that."

The Slayer handed him a stake. At his raised eyebrow, she answered, "Aim for the heart."

"Aim for the heart with a fucking wooden stake?" he repeated in disbelief. "Do you think we're hunting vampires?"

"I know we're hunting vampires," was the cold reply. 

"You're shitting me right?"

"I've never understood that expression, but no, I am not shitting you."

"You think we're hunting vampires."

"No, I know we're hunting vampires."

"This is just an April Fool's gag, right?"

"No, I'm being quite serious."

"But who hunts vampires?" Christian asked.

"Two types of people," she told him, "Vampire Slayers and Demon Hunters. I happen to be both. Now shut up and follow me."

**We'll be **

**(Yeah) **

**Like Thelma and Louise **

**(Ooh, ooh, ooh) **

**We'll be, you'll see **

**We'll be friends forever **

**We'll be **

**You'll see **

**We'll be friends forever **

Everyone in the company stared in disbelief as Buffy and Christian came through the hotel restaurant doors.  It wasn't that they hadn't done so before, it was that they'd never held hands in the eight months since Buffy's return.

Faith and Shane exchanged a glance before laughing. Faith spoke up as soon as she caught her breath. "D'Von, ya'll owe us nearly a thousand dollars. Guess that brings it to 500 each."

D'Von's mouth opened and closed several times before he got a word out. "How did you know that they'd get together on April Fool's Day?"

Faith's sister shook her head. "There was a pool out?"

"Yep," Shane answered. "I gotta say that it's scary when I can figure when you'll tell your lover the truth. You did tell him, right?"

No one but Faith understood why he said that. They were all surprised when Buffy's mouth tilted upwards. "You always did tell me to be honest. I figured I should tell him on a day when I could plead April Fool's if he tried to commit me."

"Now why would I do that?" Christian smirked before leaning in and kissing her senseless.

**We'll be **

**(You're not alone) **

**You'll see **

**We'll be **

**We'll be friends forever **

**(Friends forever, friends forever) **

Later that night, Faith frowned into the phone. She'd never told Alex what Buffy had told her about Lia and now it was going to bite her in the butt. "So your older sister's coming to the wedding?"

"All of my family is, Fay," Alex's accented voice came over the line.  "You know that."

"And all of the members of my adopted family are coming as well as my teacher's family."

"I know that already.  We talked about it just after we got engaged."

"I've never told you that I'm an adopted member of the Callas and Mai Clans, have I?"

"No, but they fit your personality, my dear," Alex told her.  The Callas Clan were vengeful fighters and the Mai were healer-warriors.

"Don't butter me up," Faith snapped. "My adopted mom is a Calloway by birth."

"What?"

"Joyce Calloway is the mother of three biological daughters and one adopted daughter. Buffy and Dawn grew up in her care but not her middle daughter.  Celia grew up as a Calloway. Are you getting the picture yet?"

"My sister Celia is also yours?"

"Well, she's your adopted half-sib/biological cousin and my adopted sib/adopted cousin, but yeah. That's it in a nutshell."

"Our wedding is going to be interesting, isn't it?"

"Hell yeah!" his fiancé smirked maliciously. She really wasn't going to tell anyone in her family about this, and she ordered him not to either.

"Why would I do that?"

_A/N: One more story to go. I don't know when it'll be done; however I do know what I want it to encompass. Can't you just see the sparks fly when the twins meet up again? And what about the rejected Scoobies? They have to have figured out where Buffy is by now…_

_Have a merry Christmas and happy New Year. _


End file.
